Blavia

The wines of the AOC Blaye, produced only in red, are considered as exceptional wines, jewels of the appellation. About fifteen winegrowers produce these wines according to draconian conditions of production allowing to obtain great wines of guard. To the west, along the Gironde, from Plassac to the north of Blaye, the soil of the steep hillsides bordering the river is clayey and chalky, while further north, the marshes are subject to periodic flooding, and their silty soil is favorable to meadows and nurseries. In the hinterland, moving eastward, the rather uneven soil offers, in the canton of Saint-Savin, a series of high and wide plateaus reaching up to 100 meters in altitude. Separated by valleys with gentle slopes, both are covered with sandy-clay soil, sometimes sandy-gravelly as in the upper part of the canton of Saint-Ciers. More to the east and going north, one meets vast plateaus, kind of moors covered with an almost pure sand, which are only suitable for the culture of the maritime pine. The subsoil of the hillsides on which the AOC wines are produced is limestone, often very hard limestone, which sometimes comes to the surface and is used either to make rubble or limestone. Towards the east, the subsoil is often sandy. One even finds there quite frequently, as in the Médoc, a sandstone constituted by sand or gravel agglomerated by iron oxide, "alios".